His Teammates Not On His Level? Ronaldo Clarifies the Statement

Cristiano Ronaldo firmly believes that Real Madrid would win La Liga this season if all of his teammates were on his level. Theclub's top goal scorer received some harsh criticism for that statement but later he clarifies what he meant.

Ronaldo made the statement right after his team's 1-0 loss to rival Atletico Madrid. The Portuguese striker says the criticisms were unfair because he was mostly playing with teammates way below his level.

"It annoys me that they say that Cristiano has dropped his level, and that is why Madrid have dropped their level,"Ronaldo said."If they were all at my level we would be first. You always ask me these crappy questions — it seems that here in Spain, I am in the s—. The numbers do not lie. Statistics never trick you — it is easy."

Ronaldo says that he really meant physically when he said not on his level. A lot of the big names in the squad were out on injury during some key games this season including Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema.

"I don’t know if it is for bad preparation at the start of the season, but we are having many injuries and that is hurting us,” Ronaldo said. "I don’t want to knock anyone, no teammate, but when the best are missing … I like to play with Bale, Benzema."

"I don’t want to say that Jese, Lucas [Vazquez] or [Mateo] Kovacic are not good players — they are very good, but … to win a competition you need to have your best players,"he added.

"In a competition this long, to win you need to have your best team. They are 12 points ahead, obviously they have done better than us," Ronaldo said regarding Barcelona's massive lead in the league tables.

Real Madrid is looking to win the Champions League this season but will have a hard time against rival Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG and others.